Senate of Canada
The Senate of Canada is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the House of Commons, they compose the bicameral legislature of Canada.
The Senate is modelled after the British House of Lords, with its members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister. The appointment is made primarily by four divisions, each having twenty-four senators: the Maritime division, the Quebec division, the Ontario division, and the Western division. Newfoundland and Labrador is not part of any division, and has six senators. Each of the three territories has one senator, bringing the total to 105 senators. Senate appointments were originally for life; since 1965, they have been subject to a mandatory retirement age of 75.
Although the Senate is the upper house of parliament and the House of Commons is the lower house, this does not imply the former is more powerful than the latter; it merely entails that its members and officers outrank the members and officers of the Commons in the order of precedence for the purposes of protocol. As a matter of practice and custom, the opposite is true, with the House of Commons being the dominant chamber. The prime minister and Cabinet are responsible solely to the House of Commons and remain in office only so long as they retain the confidence of that chamber. Parliament is composed of the two houses together with the "Crown-in-Parliament".
The approval of both houses is necessary for legislation to become law, and thus the Senate can reject bills passed by the House of Commons. In practice, this power has rarely been invoked throughout Canadian history. Although legislation can normally be introduced in either chamber, the majority of government bills originate in the House of Commons, with the Senate acting as the chamber of "sober second thought".
Notable examples of the Senate failing to approve a bill passed by the Commons include its rejection of the Naval Aid Bill in 1912; its refusal to allow a vote on legislation enabling the 1988 Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement, thus precipitating the 1988 federal election; and the 1991 defeat on a tie vote of a bill that would have criminalized abortion.
History
The Senate came into existence in 1867, when the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the British North America Act 1867, uniting the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick into a single federal Dominion. The Canadian parliament was based on the Westminster system. Canada's first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, described the Senate as a body of "sober second thought" that would curb the "democratic excesses" of the elected House of Commons and provide regional representation. He believed that if the House of Commons properly represented the population, the upper chamber should represent the regions. It was not meant to be more than a revising body or a brake on the House of Commons. Therefore, it was deliberately made an appointed house, since an elected Senate might prove too popular and too powerful and be able to block the will of the House of Commons.In 2008 the Canadian Heraldic Authority granted the Senate, as an institution, a coat of arms composed of a depiction of the chamber's mace behind the escutcheon of the Arms of Canada.
Senate reform
Discussion of Senate reform dates back to at least 1874, but there was little meaningful change until the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments was created in 2016 by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.In 1927, The Famous Five Canadian women asked the Supreme Court to determine whether women were eligible to become senators. In the Persons Case, the court unanimously held that women could not become senators since they were not "qualified persons". On appeal, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ruled that women were qualified, and four months later, Cairine Wilson was appointed to the senate.
In the 1960s, discussion of reform appeared along with the Quiet Revolution and the rise of Western alienation. The first change to the Senate was in 1965, when a mandatory retirement age of 75 years was set. Appointments made before then were for life.
In the 1970s, the emphasis was on increased provincial involvement in the senators' appointments. Since the 1970s, there have been several proposals for constitutional Senate reform, all of which have failed, including the 1987 Meech Lake Accord, and the 1992 Charlottetown Accord.
Starting in the 1980s, proposals were put forward to elect senators. After Parliament enacted the National Energy Program Western Canadians called for a Triple-E senate. In 1982 the Senate was given a qualified veto over certain constitutional amendments. In 1987 Alberta legislated for the Alberta Senate nominee elections. Results of the 1989 Alberta Senate nominee election were non-binding.
Following the Canadian Senate expenses scandal Prime Minister Stephen Harper declared a moratorium on further appointments. Harper had advocated for an elected Senate for decades, but his proposals were blocked by a 2014 Supreme Court ruling that requires a constitutional amendment approved by a minimum of seven provinces, whose populations together accounted for at least half of the national population.
Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments
In 2014, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau expelled all senators from the Liberal caucus and, as prime minister in 2015, announced a new appointment process overseen by a new Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments, both of which were attempts to make the Senate less partisan without requiring constitutional change.The Independent Advisory Board was constituted in 2016. Members of the board include members from each jurisdiction where there is a vacancy. The board provides a short list of recommended candidates to the prime minister, who is not bound to accept them. Some provinces refused to participate, stating that it would make the situation worse by lending the Senate some legitimacy.
From the beginning of the new appointments process in 2016, 100 new senators, all selected under this procedure, were appointed to fill vacancies. All Canadians may now apply directly for a Senate appointment at any time or nominate someone they believe meets the merit criteria. As of April 2025, the board is no longer accepting applications.
Chamber and offices
The original Senate chamber was lost to the fire that consumed the Parliament Buildings in 1916. The Senate then sat in the mineral room of what is today the Canadian Museum of Nature until 1922, when it relocated to Parliament Hill. With the Centre Block undergoing renovations, temporary chambers have been constructed in the Senate of Canada Building, where the Senate began meeting in 2019.There are chairs and desks on both sides of the chamber, divided by a centre aisle. A public gallery is above the chamber. The dais of the speaker is at one end of the chamber, and includes the two royal thrones built in 2017, made in part from English walnut from Windsor Great Park. Outside of Parliament Hill, most senators have offices in the Victoria Building across Wellington Street.
Composition
Qualifications
Senators are appointed by the governor general via the recommendation of the prime minister. Traditionally, members of the prime minister's party were chosen. The constitution requires that a person be a subject of the King, between 30 and 75 years of age and a resident of the province or territory for which they are appointed, to become a senator. Senators must also own property worth at least $4,000 above their debts and liabilities, a rule introduced to ensure senators were not beholden to economic vagaries and turmoil. There is a mandatory retirement age of 75. A sitting senator is disqualified from holding office if they:- fail to attend two consecutive sessions of the Senate;
- become a subject or citizen of a foreign power;
- file for bankruptcy;
- are convicted of treason or an indictable offence; or
- cease to be qualified in respect of property or of residence.
Representation
Quebec senators are the only ones to be assigned to specific districts within their province. This rule was adopted to ensure that both French- and English-speakers from Quebec were represented appropriately in the Senate.
Like most other upper houses worldwide, the Canadian formula does not use representation by population as a primary criterion for member selection, since this is already done for the House of Commons. Rather, the intent when the formula was struck was to achieve a balance of regional interests and to provide a house of "sober second thought" to check the power of the lower house when necessary. Therefore, the most populous province and two western provinces that were low-population at their accession to the federation and that are within a region are under-represented, while the Maritimes are over-represented. For example, British Columbia, with a population of about six million, sends six senators to Ottawa, whereas Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, both with populations under one million, are entitled to ten senators each. Only Quebec has a share of senators approximate to its share of the total population.
Senators must possess land worth at least $4,000 and have residency in the province or territory for which they are appointed. In the past, the residency requirement has often been interpreted liberally, with virtually any holding that met the property qualification, including primary residences, second residences, summer homes, investment properties, and undeveloped lots, having been deemed to meet the residency requirement; as long as the senator listed a qualifying property as a residence, no further efforts have typically been undertaken to verify whether they actually resided there in any meaningful way.
Residency has come under increased scrutiny, particularly as several senators have faced allegations of irregularities in their housing expense claims. In 2013, the Senate's internal economy committee required all senators to provide documents proving their residency in the provinces.
Since 1989, the voters of Alberta have elected "senators-in-waiting", or nominees for the province's Senate seats. These elections, however, are not held pursuant to any federal constitutional or legal provision; thus, the prime minister is not required to recommend the nominees for appointment. Five senators-in-waiting have been appointed to the Senate: the first was Stan Waters, who was appointed in 1990 on the recommendation of Brian Mulroney; the second was Bert Brown, elected a senator-in-waiting in 1998 and 2004, and appointed to the Senate in 2007 on the recommendation of Prime Minister Stephen Harper; the third was Betty Unger, elected in 2004 and appointed in 2012; the fourth and fifth, Doug Black and Scott Tannas, were both elected in 2012 and appointed in 2013. None of the senators-in-waiting elected in 2021 have been appointed to the senate.
The base annual salary of a senator was $184,800 in 2025, although members may receive additional salaries in right of other offices they hold. Most senators rank immediately above Members of Parliament in the order of precedence, although the speaker is ranked just above the speaker of the House of Commons and both are a few ranks higher than the remaining senators.